Speakers

SPEAKERS

Adriano Bizzoco
Marketing Manager, Adventure Productions

Adriano Bizzoco is the Marketing Manager at Adventure Productions. Since 2010 he worked on more than 60 videogames distributed on the Italian market, both on retail and digital channels.

Andrea Dresseno
Project Manager, Video Game Archive

Andrea Dresseno graduated in DAMS Cinema at the University of Bologna. In 2002 he started working on the Chaplin Project (Cineteca di Bologna), curating the digitization and the cataloging of the filmmaker’s paper and stills archive. In 2009, he combined together his professional experience as an archivist and his passion for video games initiating the Archivio Videoludico (Video Game Archive), the first Italian archive aimed to preserve the video game medium. He has been working as a writer for several magazines and blogs dedicated to films and video games. He is the project manager of IVIPRO, the Italian Videogame Program.

Andrea Postiglione
CEO & Co-Founder, Mangatar

Graduated BA with Honors in Communication and Media Management, he focuses his energies on entrepreneurship and financial management, while giving special attention to startup mentoring and fund raising. He strongly believes in networking and cooperation as a means to bringing Mangatar to be one of the big players of the field.

Andrea Tabacco
Owner & Senior Designer, Antabstudio

Andrea Tabacco is an eclectic professional active in the game industry since 2005. Andrea has worked both for big companies – such as Ubisoft and Forge Reply – as well as an indie developer, self-publishing one-man-team games for consoles and mobile devices. Following the desire to dedicate all his efforts and time to his own company, Andrea has founded AntabStudio at the beginnings of 2016

Antonio Farina
CEO, Reludo srl

With a big passion for technology and creativity since his childhood, Antonio could have only ended up creating videogames. He started programming with a ZX Spectrum in the early 80’s, moving to company management a few years later at SC where he managed the development of 10 multiplatform games published under the Idea label. He then moved to start his own company Graffiti, later Milestone, still today the largest videogame development company in Italy specialized in console racing games: Superbike, MotoGP, WRC, and many others. He is currently back to indie in the fascinating market of smartphone digital publishing at Reludo, where he hopes one day to publish the next phone sensation…

Ben Andac
Business & Product Developer, Sony Interactive Entertainment

Ben is a game developer with over 10 years experience at companies such as SEGA and Sony, and currently works as a Product Developer in PlayStation’s Strategic Content group. He has worked on titles such as No Man’s Sky, Hellblade, and Rez Infinite.

Brenda Romero

Brenda Romero is an award-winning game designer, artist and Fulbright scholar who entered the video game industry in 1981. As a designer, she has contributed to many seminal titles, including the Wizardry and Jagged Alliance series and titles in the Ghost Recon and Dungeons & Dragons franchises. Away from the machine, her analog series of six games, The Mechanic is the Message, has drawn national and international acclaim, particularly Train and Síochán Leat (The Irish Game) that is presently housed in the National Museum of Play. In 2015, she won the coveted Ambassador’s Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. In 2014, she received a Fulbright award to study Ireland’s game industry, academic and government policies. In 2013, Gamasutra named her one of the top 10 game developers and Develop magazine listed her among the 25 people who changed games in 2013. Romero co-owns Loot Drop and Romero Games.

Ciro Continisio
Technical Evangelist, Unity Technologies

Previously developing games with his own company, Ciro recently joined Unity as Tech Evangelist for the EMEA region. His job is technically going around Europe and spreads the word about Unity, but you’ll also hear a lot about good game development practices and game design, for which he has a soft spot. He also has a passion for education and teaching, and is a restless advocate for game jams.

Claudia Molinari
Game&Visual Designer, We Are Müesli

Claudia is a graphic artist, illustrator and art director with an odd knowledge of creativity and communication, developed throughout her studies in the UK and years working on design projects in Italy and China. Since 2013, she’s been one half of the “unconventional storytelling” independent duo We Are Müesli along with her partner Matteo Pozzi, focusing on award-winning narrative games rooted in cultural, historical and artistic topics. Their latest works include visual novel “Venti Mesi” about Italian Resistance, local multiplayer and IndieCade Selection “SIHEYU4N” and a collaboration on story and dialogues for Santa Ragione’s narrative racing “Wheels of Aurelia”.

Claudio Giacopazzi
Senior Advisor, Fish Eagle

Claudio Giacopazzi began his career in 1995, when he created his first PC football video game, MF’95, to raise funds for the reconstruction of the youth center in the city of Mostar, destroyed during the Bosnian war. After the successful results of the charity initiative, he set up a dedicated company, Wayward, for the creation of video games. In 1999 he founded WaywardXS Entertainment and raised funds to further develop and expand his output in the sport management genre. Claudio worked with several talented developers and some of them built a very successful career (eg Christian Cantamessa, Agostino Simonetta, Marco Ponte). Before leaving the company, he set up a publishing label (Playdas) and contributed to the release of 11 titles. The following years were dedicated to Lords Of Football, produced by Fish Eagle and developed by Geniaware. Claudio was instrumental in both the creation of the game and the company’s digital distribution network. Claudio is currently working on new projects yet to be announced.

Cristina Nava
Associate Producer, Ubisoft Milan

Cristina Nava entered Ubisoft Milan in 2008, as a scriptwriter. She then went to the dark side and became an Associate Producer. She has worked on eight published video games since joining Ubisoft, including titles of the Rabbids and Just Dance franchises. The latest announced project she’s been developing is Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, due to be released March 2017. In her former life she was a comics and TV writer. She occasionally still holds the role of Narrative Designer.

Daniele Azara
Head of games, 101% – Megalomània

Daniele worked for 20 years in the Interactive Entertainment market. Producer, author and game designer, he got to his credit dozens of projects in which he hybridizes technologies and languages in order to get the users involved and make them to become the very protagonists and fulcrum of the narrative process. Currently he leads Megalomània, the 101% company development unit focused on interactive productions and R&D on VR/AR projects. He is one of the authors of Witness: Auschwitz

Dario Grilli
Tax advisor & Chartered accountant, Studio Conti Grilli

Member of the Order of Chartered Accountants (CPA) in Milan and Auditor Certified Member has a degree in economics at the Bocconi University. Old style accountant and programmer but with passion in future technologies. International group relations, balance, reporting and fiscal planning for medium companies
Tax, budgeting, administration advisor for digital and technology startups (mostly in e-commerce, App and web services). Author of the Book “App Mobile” – Taxation and fiscal treatment published by Maggioli

Elisa Di Lorenzo
Co-Founder, Foofa Studios

Passionate about video games from an early age, Elisa Di Lorenzo graduated in Computer Science from the University of Genoa (DISI). During her postgraduate studies, Elisa worked as a freelance game developer, mainly in the creation of Flash games, dealing in particular with artificial intelligence and pathfinding, user interaction, and level design. In 2008 she founded, together with some university classmates, Foofa Studios, where she worked as a programmer first and then as a producer and business developer. In 2013 Foofa Studios teamed up with actor and director Flavio Parenti and creates Untold Games with the aim of developing games designed for virtual reality with a strong storytelling component. Untold Games’ first project is the virtual reality adventure game Loading Human, successfully funded on Kickstarter and scheduled to release in October on the main VR platforms.

Elisa Farinetti
CEO & Business developer, Broken Arms Games

29 years, background as a web developer, she worked on the most famous Italian applications for the Samsung SmartTV platform. After that she worked for about a year in Milan, in CineTrailer startup, developing a multiplatform application to drive people into cinemas, there, in addition to work as a developer, she followed the development of an entrepreneurial project and its promotion through different channels. In October 2012 she quit her job and she started the jouney that led her to create Broken Arms Games with Yves and Giulio.

Eleonora Lucheroni
PR & Marketing Manager, Storm in a Teacup

PR & Marketing Manager for Storm in a Teacup, a video game company based in Rome, which focuses on PC and Consoles platforms. Eleonora entered the world of video games after a degree in Oriental Studies and a long stay in Japan. She started as PR for a video game related site, but she prefers to work with development studios, like Storm in a Teacup and Indiegala. Her great passion for social media, marketing, and communication has evolved into a job that she loves and that has given her lots to be proud of, like the Drago d’Oro award won by her company.

Fabio Mosca
Virtual Reality Developer, Digital Mantis

Born in 1989, Fabio Mosca is a Virtual Reality specialist and co-founder at AnotheReality. With a background as researcher (RMIT – Melbourne) and a bachelor degree in CS engineering (Polytechnic of Milan), he works on every VR technology he can put his hands on, developing video games, mobile demos, training systems and various experimental projects. With the Digital Mantis team he recently released Yon Paradox, a tron-looking videogame based on time travels.

Fabrizia Malgieri
Editor-in-chief, Gamereactor.it

Born in Naples in 1985, Fabrizia took her first steps in the world of gaming on an old Commodore 64, when she was only 4 years-old. She graduated in Television, Film and Multimedia Production at IULM University in Milan with a thesis on Italian animation from the 90s to now. After having worked from 2007 to 2010 as editor for the web community Wiitalia (the first Italian community entirely dedicated to Nintendo Wii) and from 2009 to 2012 as editor-in-chief for the online branch of the movie magazine Duellanti (founded by film critic Gianni Canova), from 2013 she is editor-in-chief of the Italian branch of the international gaming network Gamereactor. Being a cinema, games and new technologies enthusiast, since 2013 she is a PhD student in Communication and New Technologies at IULM University with a research project dedicated to the second-screen experience in games, entitled Multi-screens and multi-frames: New gaming experience practices.

Flavio Parenti
CEO, Untold Games

Born in Paris, Flavio grew up between France and Italy, learning to speak both languages. He graduated from Genoa’s National Theater Academy in 2002 and from then on started to work as a lead actor both in the Theater and Movie industry. He starred alongside many awarded artists such as Woody Allen, Tilda Swinton, Murray Abrahams and more. One of his movies, “I am Love”, was nominated for an Oscar.
While acting, Flavio also directed many theater performances, as well as producing awarded movies and interactive web series. In 2013, he co-founded Untold Games, a Video Game company focused on interactive storytelling in Virtual Reality.

Francesco Ferrazzino
CEO and Founder, Proxy42 Inc.

He has been working in the digital space for over 15 years. In 2010, Francesco founded a digital boutique based in Italy, specializing in analysis, design and implementation of websites, web, mobile apps and games, digital marketing and consulting companies for digital projects and augmented reality. In 2012 he founded a spin-off US company called Proxy 42, that has developed father.io, a massive multiplayer first person shooter in augmented reality that is played in real life, like laser tag, but using smart phones, thanks to a wearable device specially designed and developed to ensure immersive gameplay. father.io’s Indiegogo campaign – launched in February – reached and exceeded their initial fundraising goal by over 650% and sold over 12,000 devices. In 2014, Francesco was a finalist in the main European startup competition LeWeb 2014 and winners at the Pioneers Unplugged Turin in 2014.

James Lucchini
Founder & Game Designer, Stormborn Studio

Giacomo Lucchini has been involved in the VR space since the beginning, developing one of the first VR games in 2013 “It’s a trap” for the Oculus DK1. He also developed interactive 3d experiences for the Oculus DK2, and later working in a Video Production company as Project Manager for VR projects where he introduced the new media, producing high quality 360° videos for different Italian companies.
Storyteller, game designer, and above all, hardcore gamer, he can be referred to as the most enthusiastic man in the gaming industry.

John Bazzoni
CEO, Digital Tales

Following a degree in aeronautical engineering, Giovanni specialized in thermo-fluid dynamics simulation while working at Enel SpA He developed CG special effects software at Phoenix Tools and marketed interactive apps, VR experiences and 3D CG commercials at Softdesign Srl as a Sales & Marketing Manager. In 2004 Giovanni fulfilled his dream to work in the gaming industry and joined Italian developer Milestone as Operations Manager. In 2006 he co-founded Digital Tales.
Giovanni Maria Riccio
Professor of Law (University of Salerno) and Managing Partner at E-Lex Law Firm (Rome)

Ivan Venturi
CEO, IV Productions

Ivan Venturi began developing videogames in the early ’80 and published his first C64 videogames in 1987. He co-founded the first Italian videogame software house, Simulmondo, in charge of Production Director until 1993. He founded his own videogame company, Colors Arti Multimediali, in 1994, producing dozens of PC videogames until 1999. He began working as videogame producer and business development, and in 2003 he founded Ticonblu, formerly Koala Games, part of Gruppo Armonia. In 2012 he began his independent videogame production, IV Productions, based on production of PC/MAC/MOBILE/CONSOLE videogames for the worldwide market, producing, publishing and developing more than 20 games for all platforms.

John Romero

John Romero is an award-winning game designer, level designer and programmer whose work spans over 130 games, 107 of which have been published commercially, including the iconic works Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM and Quake. Romero has worked in the mobile, hardcore, mid-core, casual and MMO space. Romero has co-founded eight successful game companies including the likes of id Software, Gazillion Entertainment and, most recently, Loot Drop which is celebrating its 5th anniversary in 2015. He is considered to be among the world’s top game designers, and his products have won well over 100 awards. One of the earliest indie developers, Romero began working in the game space in 1979 on mainframes before moving to the Apple II in 1981. He is a completely self-taught programmer, designer and artist, having drawn his inspirations from early Apple II programmers. Romero co-owns Loot Drop and Romero Games.

Laura Anna Ripamonti
Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of Milan

Laura Anna Ripamonti is Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Milan – Italy, where she is scientific coordinator, together with Dr. Dario Maggiorini, of the research laboratory PONG – Playlab fOr inNovation in Games and of a master degree on Video Games. She graduated in Engineering and Managerial Sciences at Politecnico di Milano and then got a PhD in Computer Science from University of Milan – Italy. Her research interests focus on video games, with a special interest for MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) and Applied Games. In particular, she investigates the relationships connecting game design issues to social interaction and AI applications. Since 2010, she lectures in game design to master students in computer science.

Laura Lombardi
Marketing Director, Activision Italy

In the video games industry since 18 years, Laura started her professional career in the marketing field working as a Brand Manager, first in one of the biggest distributor in the Italian market and then directly for a multinational publisher. In 2002 Laura established the branch office of Activision in Italy and was appointed as Country Manager. Since 2003 she has been working as Head of the Marketing and PR department of Activision Italy and supervising the launch of the most important Activision’s titles and franchises, both IPs such as Call of Duty and Guitar Hero, and licenses such as Spiderman, Shrek, Madagascar, and so on. Since 2013 her focus is exclusively on Skylanders franchise as Marketing Director.

Luca Dalcò
Founder & Art Director, LKA

Luca Dalcò, LKA founder and Art Director, after a long experience working in computer graphic and real time applications applied to various fields like stage design for theatrical representation, documentaries and cultural heritage, started his own studio, LKA, working as screenwriter and art director of ‘The Town Of Light’, the first project of the newborn studio. Actually he is working with his studio for the porting for consoles version (Xbox One – PS4) of ‘The Town of Light’ as long as a new title, called ‘Martha is dead’.

Matteo Lollini
Communication Office, Cineteca di Bologna

Matteo Lollini got a degree in Media Studies. presenting a dissertation on Advertising. He is interested in Semiotics, Communication and New Media. He has been involved in different professional experiences in various communication areas over recent years, from academic to publishing fields, from marketing to promotion for cultural organizations and private companies.
At the Cineteca di Bologna he is part of the Communication Office: social media and web content managing, events promotion, film and non-film archives promotion, promotional graphics. He has been co-curator of the Video Game Archive (Archivio Videoludico) and he is a member of the scientific committee of the AV Award for the best Italian dissertations on video games.

Matthew Palumbo
CEO & Founder, Interactive Project

Matteo Palumbo is a huge videogames fan, and graduated in IT Engineering with the purpose of becoming a game developer. While still a student in 2006 Matteo develops and publishes his first motorsports managerial browser based game. In 2011 Interactive Project was founded by him, the company aimed at developing mobile and browser games about racing and motorsports. Interactive Project has recently been acquired by Motorsport.com: one of the leading online distributors of motorsport related content. Matteo and his team are already hard at work developing new and exciting titles to be published worldwide.

Mauro Fanelli
CEO, MixedBag

A long time videogame enthusiast, Mauro approached the game industry as a journalist, founding one of the first Italian videogame websites back in 1998. In 2013 he co-founded MixedBag, an independent studio focused on designing and producing original IPs for console, mobile and computer platforms, with the debut title Futuridium EP Deluxe launching on PlayStation 4 and Vita thanks to Sony support. As a strong believer in new technologies’ potential in enabling innovative game experiences, Mauro and his studio are now deeply invested in Virtual Reality.

Michael Caletti
Lead Programmer, Milestone

After obtaining my Master Degree in Computer Sciences in 2003, working on 3D graphics and AI systems, I’ve joined Milestone. I’ve spent the first years as Audio Developer, working on game simulation and tools to support sound designers. Then, starting with SBK08, I’ve moved to the role of Lead Programmer, and then with SBKX, MUD, and MotoGP13 to Game Director. Then, following the complex internal reorganizations of the increasing teams, I’ve been again Lead Programmer for several other titles, including Valentino Rossi the game, and Ride2. Equally passionate about motorsports and videogames, I always try to push the boundaries of our titles – from the player’s perspective.

Richard Cangini
Co-Founder, Co-Owner and CEO EnterAcademy Ltd

Founder of Artematica Entertainment and Be2Bit, I’ve been active for over 25 years in the gaming sector with around 200 games produced with first hand involvement. In 1990 I co-developed “I Play 3D Soccer” for Amiga, and from 1990 to 1995 I worked at Simulmondo as designer, coder, graphic designer, graduating to production and sales manager. In 1996 I founded and directed Artematica Entertainment, which became one of the leading Italian independent software houses. Artematica developed and produced games that have been published worldwide by Disney, Warner Bros, Ubisoft and Codemasters, among others. In 2013 I founded Be2Bit, with the objective of turning it into one of the leaders in the fields of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and custom apps.

Sebastiano Mandalà
CTO, Freejam

Seb is the chief technical officer at Freejam Games, makers of Robocraft, and has been in the games industry since 1999.

“Sniper Lyla”, Anna Quattrociocchi
Gamer & Youtuber

Born in Frosinone, Sniper Lyla -real name Anna Quattrociocchi -is an Italian youtuber who’s success has grown out of her passion for the gaming world. Before turning to YouTube, Anna obtained a degree in “Political and Business Communication”, a branch of Communication Science specializing in marketing. During her studies, she worked as a web designer, waitress, bartender and wedding planner. Anna is a person who is “thirsty for knowledge” and has many passions, including video games, science, anthropology, archaeology, symbolism, esotericism, mythology, technology, communication, biology and much more.

Stefano Barilli
Lead Artist, CINIC Games

Stefano Barilli is the Lead Artist and Digital Colorist at CINIC Games. After attending the course in Digital Coloring at the Comics School in Reggio Emilia, he moved to Brescia to continue his studies on new art technologies at Accademia di Belle Arti SantaGiulia.

Stefano Petrullo
Founder, Renaissance PR

An award-winning PR professional with over 15 years’ experience in planning and implementing full campaigns for some of the world’s biggest entertainment brands, including Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and more. Stefano has been in the industry since 1991, former journalist and former senior PR manager of Ubisoft who has been involved in product and corporate PR as well as crisis management. Optimistic and extroverted, his works is always based on measurable result and focus on the big picture of the campaign across all types of media (owned, earned, paid). Currently representing Team17, Square Enix Collective, Milestone and Edge Case Games.

Tiziana Grasso
Communication Manager, Sony Computer Entertainment Italy

– Italian Literature University Degree
– LUMSA, Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta, Rome
– Journalism School – Centro LAB, Writing and Television Journalism Laboratory, Rome
– Master’s Degree in Public Relations Studies – Ateneo Impresa Business School, Rome
Currently: Communication Manager @ Sony Interactive Entertainment Italia
Work Experience
– Il Messaggero daily newspaper in Rome
– Wise Media SpA, integrated communications consultancy group
– Hill & Knowlton Gaia, Rome
– Edelman, Rome
– Sony Computer Entertainment Italia, Rome

Tiziano Bucci
President & Lead 3D Artist, Invader Studios

He studied CG Animation at the European Institute of Design (IED) placed in Rome and then he majored in 3D real-time graphics at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects of Los Angeles. He took his first steps with the project of Skywind in the European modding community by the time he started his career as a freelancer. He has taken the position of Lead 3D Artist at Invader Studios, known before as Invader Games, since September 2015.

Valerio Di Donato
CEO & CTO, 34BigThings

Software Architect and Game Director, Valerio owns a Master’s Degree in Game Technology from the IT University of Copenhagen. After some interesting working experience abroad, comes back to Italy with two fellow Italians to found 34BigThings. After three years the company is one of the biggest independent game studios in Italy and has managed to release, among other titles, Redout, an instant-classic arcade futuristic racing game for PC (and consoles in the near future).

Yuliya Moshkaryova
Indie Prize Director & Senior Project Manager and Team Leader, Wildec LLC

Yuliya Moshkaryova is the Indie Prize Director and Senior Project Manager and Team Leader at Ukrainian indie studio Wildec LLC. Yuliya travels around the world to meet indie developers from every corner of the globe and to invite the best games to join the Indie Prize scholarship.